The next meeting of the Japan History Group (JHG) at the Institute of Social Science (ISS), University of Tokyo, will be held on Tuesday, 31 July 2018, at 6:00 PM in No.1 Meeting Room (Dai-ichi Kaigi-shitsu), 1st floor of the Main Building of ISS, Hongo Campus.



Presenter: Jeremy Yellen (Assistant professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong)



Title: "Wartime Wilsonianism and the Crisis of Empire during World War II"



Discussant: Masumi Yoshida (PhD Candidate, University of Tokyo)




Astract:


The Pacific War was striking in the extent to which Wilsonian ideals informed the war aims of both sides. By 1943, the Atlantic Charter and Japan's Pacific Charter (Greater East Asia Joint Declaration) outlined remarkably similar visions for the postwar order. This comparative study of the histories surrounding both charters highlights remarkable similarities between the foreign policies of Great Britain and Imperial Japan. Both empires engaged with Wilsonianism in similar ways, to similar ends. Driven by geopolitical desperation, both enshrined Wilsonian values into their war aims to survive a grueling war with empire intact. But the endorsement of national self-determination, in particular, gave elites in dependent states a means to protest the realities of both British and Japanese rule and to demand that both empires practice what they preach. This comparative analysis of Britain and Japan thus sheds light on the part Wilsonian ideology played in the global crisis of empire during World War II, and highlights an important step toward empire's end in Asia.



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Dr. Naofumi NAKAMURA
Professor of Business History
Institute of Social Science,
The University of Tokyo
naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp <mailto:naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp>

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